He relocated to South Philadelphia, the first of his family to do so. Her grandfather had been born a slave and had been emancipated in the 1860s. Marian and her family moved into the home of her father's parents, Benjamin and Isabella Anderson. Soon afterwards her father died, following heart failure. When Anderson was 12, her father received a head injury while working at the Reading Terminal before Christmas 1909. At the age of 10, Marian joined the People's Chorus of Philadelphia under the direction of a singer Emma Azalia Hackley, where she was often a soloist. As she got into her early teens, Marian began to make as much as four or five dollars for singing, a considerable sum for the early 20th century.
Beginning as young as six, her aunt arranged for Marian to sing for local functions where she was often paid 25 or 50 cents for singing a few songs. Anderson credited her aunt's influence as the reason she pursued her singing career. Aunt Mary took Marian to concerts at local churches, the YMCA, benefit concerts, and other community music events throughout the city. In that role, she got to perform solos and duets, often with her aunt. Marian's aunt Mary, her father's sister, was particularly active in the church's musical life and convinced her niece to join the junior church choir at the age of six. Īnderson's parents were both devout Christians and the whole family was active in the Union Baptist Church, which, during her youth, stood in a building constructed by the congregation in 1889 at 709 S. Ethel married James DePreist and their son James Anderson DePreist was a noted conductor. Her two sisters, Alyse (1899–1965) and Ethel (1902–90), also became singers. Marian was the eldest of the three Anderson children. She therefore earned an income caring for small children. As she did not obtain a degree, Annie Anderson was unable to teach in Philadelphia under a law that was applied only to black teachers and not white ones. Prior to her marriage, Anderson's mother was briefly a student at the Virginia Seminary and College in Lynchburg and had worked as a schoolteacher in Virginia. Her father sold ice and coal at the Reading Terminal in downtown Philadelphia and eventually also sold liquor. Marian Anderson was born in Philadelphia on February 27, 1897, to John Berkley Anderson (c.
On January 7, 1955, Anderson became the first African-American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. She sang before an integrated crowd of more than 75,000 people and a radio audience in the millions. Roosevelt, Anderson performed a critically acclaimed open-air concert on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, on the Lincoln Memorial steps in the capital. With the aid of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband President Franklin D. The incident placed Anderson in the spotlight of the international community on a level unusual for a classical musician. In 1939 during the era of racial segregation, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused to allow Anderson to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. Anderson performed with renowned orchestras in major concert and recital venues throughout the United States and Europe between 19.Īnderson was an important figure in the struggle for African-American artists to overcome racial prejudice in the United States during the mid-twentieth century. She performed a wide range of music, from opera to spirituals. Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897 – April 8, 1993) was an American contralto.
Marian Anderson in 1940, by Carl Van Vechten
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